The world this week

Politics
Business
KAL’s cartoon
This week’s covers
Leaders


Ukraine
Ukraine faces a long war. A change of course is needed
Its backers should pray for a speedy victory—but plan for a long struggle

From Asia to Asia
What Asia’s economic revolution means for the world
Links between the region’s countries are getting stronger. But America’s loss is not entirely China’s gain

Death in Vancouver
If India ordered a murder in Canada, there must be consequences
Western countries have for too long acquiesced to the Indian government’s abuses

Beyond the hype
ChatGPT mania may be cooling, but a serious new industry is taking shape
Three forces will shape the business of generative AI

How to beat HIV
To end AIDS, high-risk countries will need to jab schoolgirls
Injections that could keep a generation virus-free are on the horizon

Uninsurable America
Climate change is coming for America’s property market
Insurance is supposed to signal risk. Policymakers should let it

Letters

On nuclear weapons, business agglomerations, Germany, heat pumps, the EU’s Council of Ministers, inoculations, headline wordplay
Letters to the editor
Briefing


The battle within
To endure a long war, Ukraine is remaking its army, economy and society
The improvisation and decentralisation of the early part of the war will no longer suffice

A lean patch
Western help for Ukraine is likely to diminish next year
There is a shortage of weapons and munitions—and, in some quarters, goodwill
Asia


Asia’s new aid diplomacy
China isn’t the only country giving out goodies in Asia
Rebuilding Tokyo
Demolishing one of Babe Ruth’s last stadiums
Murder in the suburbs
A devastating accusation by Justin Trudeau against India
Banyan
China’s claim to the South China Sea gets even odder
China


Xi’s troubled coterie
The disappearance of China’s defence minister raises big questions
Claims on the past
How China uses UNESCO to rewrite history
Spooked
China tells its citizens to be on the lookout for spies
Chaguan
China wants to be the leader of the global south
United States


Uninsurable America
Parts of America are becoming uninsurable
Pax Texana
What Ken Paxton’s acquittal means for Texas Republicans
Busting out
Illinois is the first state in America to abandon cash bail
Diplomacy in the new cold war
Biden, alone at the top table as the UN withers
Blocking manoeuvres
America’s states are trying to set rules for the internet
Wasted organs
In America, lots of usable organs go unrecovered or get binned
Lexington
America’s dumbest, wildest budget fight yet
Middle East & Africa


Making sex safer again
Is the end of AIDS in sight?
Hostages and a fortune
Iran’s $6bn hostage deal is part of a broader diplomatic strategy
Prison blues
Lebanon’s prison inmates are running short of food
Never let a crisis go to waste
Khalifa Haftar will use Libya’s floods to deepen his control

The Americas


Sertanejo swagger
Brazil’s hinterland now resembles Texas
Europe


A one-day war
Azerbaijan is close to taking control of Nagorno-Karabakh
Energie-wander
Angst mounts over Germany’s green transition
Geopolitical monster v Brussels effect
Why the EU will not remain the world’s digital über-regulator
Charlemagne
Europe’s conservative populists pit migrants against babies
Britain


Panicky policymaking
Rishi Sunak’s anti-green turn on Britain’s climate targets
A shot in the arm
Britain’s war on drugs enters a new phase
Inflation and wages
What supermarkets reveal about Britain’s economy
Brits in Paris
France rolls out the red carpet for Britain
Scary mutts
A fight over dangerous dogs in Britain
A year after the disastrous mini-budget
The legacy of Liz Truss
Pollution in Northern Ireland
The largest freshwater lake in the British Isles has been poisoned
Bagehot
Russell Brand was the norm in the nasty noughties
International


Young guns
Meet the world’s new arms dealers
Business


Smart money
Could OpenAI be the next tech giant?
Can Falcon soar?
Abu Dhabi throws a surprise challenger into the AI race
Emissionary zeal
California cracks down on carbon
Strike while the engine is hot
America’s big car firms face lengthy strikes
Missile stockpiles
Big pharma can’t get enough of one class of cancer drugs
Bartleby
Friendships in the office
Schumpeter
What Arm and Instacart say about the coming IPO wave
Finance & economics


A new era
How Asia is reinventing its economic model
The price battle
Why aren’t more people being sacked?
All at once
Does China’s fear of floating exceed its fear of deflation?
Financial innovation
Macau offers a new way to get rich
Buttonwood
How to avoid a common investment mistake
Rod stewards
Why uranium prices are soaring
Free exchange
Renewable energy has hidden costs
Science & technology


PANDA-monium
How common infections can spark psychiatric illnesses in children
Creation and destruction
A chunk of asteroid is coming to Earth
Godforsaken rocks
Finding alien life may require finding new sorts of planets
Culture


Tok of the town
TikTok is changing the way books are recommended and sold
Books and bobs
Publishing used to be packed with parties and punch
Where the wild things are
From myth to art, bears have long captivated people
Powering up
An opera about Steve Jobs is opening in San Francisco
Back Story
Donald Trump and the dramatic power of not turning up
Here, there and almost everywhere
The British Empire peaked 100 years ago this month
Economic & financial indicators

Indicators
Economic data, commodities and markets
Graphic detail


China’s demography
China’s “demographic dividend” appears to be a myth
The Economist explains


The Economist explains
Why Poland is halting its supply of weapons to Ukraine
The Economist explains
What is Khalistan, the independent homeland some Sikhs yearn for?
Obituary


On a spear’s edge
Mangosuthu Buthelezi had his own vision for a democratic South Africa